This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-37605 filed on Jun. 29, 2002, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wall-mounted type microwave oven, and more particularly, to a wall-mounted type microwave oven having a sweeping device to clean kitchen appliances disposed at positions adjacent thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a wall-mounted type microwave oven is mounted above an oven range on a wall of a kitchen space, and carries out a cooking operation, as well as an exhausting operation to exhaust gas and fumes generated from the oven range disposed therebelow. The oven range, such as a gas oven range, is normally equipped with a plurality of top-burners, each having a support grid to support a cooking pot placed thereon. The gas and fumes generated by the oven range are exhausted by the exhausting operation of the microwave oven disposed thereabove.
With use, the oven range is gradually polluted on its upper surface with scraps of food debris and condiments which are accidentally spilt by a user, and with dust floating in the kitchen space. As such, the oven range must be accasionally cleaned by a user.
However, since additional cleaning tools are required to clean the upper surface of the oven range, a cleaning operation of the oven range is considerably cumbersome. In particular, since structures of the top burners of the oven range are complicated, due to for example, the support grids that support cooking pots, it is difficult to clean the oven range where scraps of food debris and dust are accumulated on the top burners.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wall-mounted type microwave oven which not only carries out exhausting and cooking operations, but also cleans an upper surface of an oven range and kitchen areas adjacent to the microwave oven via a suction force of an exhaust fan.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To achieve the above and other objects of the present invention, there is provided a wall-mounted type microwave oven comprising an oven body to mount in a cooking area and includes a cooking chamber and an electrical component compartment which are isolated from each other, an exhaust flow path which communicates between an intake port provided at a bottom panel of the oven body and an exhaust outlet provided at a top panel of the oven body to exhaust air, existing under the oven body, to the outside of the cooking area, an exhaust fan assembly provided at the exhaust outlet, a sweeping inlet provided at the bottom panel of the oven body, a sweeping flow path which is disposed in the oven body and communicates with an inlet of the exhaust fan assembly and the sweeping inlet, a filter assembly disposed in the sweeping flow path, and a sweeping hose detachably coupled to the sweeping inlet.
The sweeping flow path may be defined by a plurality of guide plates positioned at upper, side and lower portions of the oven body which isolate the sweeping flow path from the exhaust flow path.
Any one of the guide plates defining the sweeping flow path may include a communicating hole which allows the exhaust flow path to communicate with the sweeping flow path, and an opening-closing unit may be provided to selectively open and close the communicating hole.
The opening-closing unit may comprise an opening-closing plate rotatably provided adjacent to the communicating hole, a rotating link which is connected to a rotating shaft of the opening-closing plate and has a predetermined length, and a solenoid-driven device which includes an actuating rod connected to an end of the rotating link and linearly drives the rotating link to open/close the communicating hole.
The filter assembly may comprise a cover plate which is detachably fitted into a filter opening formed at a position of the bottom panel corresponding to the sweeping flow path, and a filter unit which is attached to an inner surface of the cover plate, has a sectional area corresponding to that of the sweeping flow path and filters out foreign substances contained in air introduced into the sweeping flow path.
The cover plate may include snap hooks which are provided at corresponding sides of the cover plate and elastically deform to allow the cover plate to be detachably fitted into the filter opening.
The sweeping inlet may include a locking recess, and the sweeping hose may include a corresponding locking protrusion which is provided at a coupling end of the sweeping hose and engages with the locking recess to secure the sweeping hose to the sweeping inlet.
The exhaust fan assembly may comprise a first exhaust fan which exhausts air introduced into the exhaust flow path, a second exhaust fan which exhausts air introduced into the sweeping flow path, and a motor which rotates the first and second exhaust fans concurrently.
The exhaust flow path may comprise a lower path section which is disposed at the bottoms of the cooking chamber and the electric component compartment and includes the intake port, a first rising path section which is vertically disposed behind the electric component compartment and communicates with the lower path section, and a second rising path section which is vertically disposed on a side wall of the cooking chamber and communicates with the lower path section.